


Secrets Revealed

by dahtwitchi



Series: Fix-it for Angst Week and related issues [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Snakes, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 10:40:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18050951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahtwitchi/pseuds/dahtwitchi
Summary: It fully dawned on Madara that he had turned his lover into stone, as the cursed nest of snakes slithered around his face.(Following directly on, and is a fix-it for, the comicSecrets Never to be told.)





	Secrets Revealed

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Secrets never to be told](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15520785) by [dahtwitchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dahtwitchi/pseuds/dahtwitchi). 



The weight was too much too much too heavy can'tbreathemust _getaway-_

The snakes were slithering, hissing, dry sliding sounds over his face, over his shoulders and chest. He wanted to claw his eyes out, get rid of this cursed part of himself. The sight of his petrified partner hurt in ways he couldn’t begin to define. His Tobirama, his wonderful snarky ass of a man, that hid such warmth and affection behind high, high walls. His inquisitive, curious partner that had wanted to show Madara how little whatever was under the blindfold mattered. His Tobirama, who could never back down from knowing more, and had made such a grievous error. 

The weight. Unbearable. It was a struggle to breathe, and not only because of the crushing statue on top of him. His partner was gone, all because of his own monstrous nature. Matted, dull and grey. The moments of softness before the curse took hold made the horror so much worse. He now knew the tone of Tobirama’s skin, he knew of his smile, knew of his pleased, soft gaze, knew of his curious red marks that weren’t visible on the solid grey now looming over him. 

A snake reached Tobirama. Examined him with a curious tongue. Madara’s breath stuttered, as suddenly the nest of snakes slid as one mass toward his petrified lover. In panic, he let his world fall to darkness again as he shut his eyes. He sobbed, chest constricting painfully as the weight of the creatures faded and fell. Hair coiled over his chest, inanimate and unalive. 

He had feared this. 

Feared there would come a day he turned a loved one. That he for the first time would lay his eyes on them, and they’d be doomed. 

He had never imagined it would happen while their body was draped over his own.

The weight.

He had to get away.

But.

Madara could barely get air as he realised moving away might shift the statue, shift the body atop of him and make it fall. Risk it falling to the ground, shatter, be smashed to pieces. His second glimpse of the love of his life might be a body broken into shards.

 

He did not know for how long he lay there, in a limbo of panicked indecision and the wetness of tears slowly sinking into his hairline, reminding him how innocently deceptive the black mass seemed when his eyes were closed. 

He only noticed time had passed as the darkness became less dark. For a moment he thought it morning already, having flashes of forgetting to close the curtain as they eagerly fell to bed together. The light was not strong, though, only cold and dim. It must be a full moon, to shine so bright. It was oddly eerie, thinking so rationally about a detail like the light, as he lay in such all consuming pain. The thought of the statue bathed in moonshine made it hurt even more.

Then the statue began to slip to the side, and he scrambled desperately to stop it from falling to destruction. For a fraction of time he barely kept back a scream as his fingers connected with the form, the thought of hands touching stone where there should be smooth skin too hard to handle.

The world stopped.

Warmth. Unfamiliar shapes and unexpected softness.

There was no hard stone, no chilled surface.

His grip was hard, expecting to have to keep a stone statue from falling. There was a distressed yelp as the force of his movements almost flung it away from the edge of the bed. Unable to stop himself in the confusion, Madara opened his eyes, the snakes rearing back in an instant to match his bewildered state.

A white shape, bathed in moonlight. Warm muscles moving under his clenching hands. Soft, white fur brushed against his fingers.

For all that he could barely form a coherent thought, and the impossibility of what he was seeing, he dimly registered the being as a wolf. There were streaks of red on its face, and he felt sure a wolf shouldn’t be capable of such a clearly disgruntled grimace as it shifted in his strong grip around its front legs. Red eyes met his, and he felt a sudden hope so intense it once again made it hard to breathe.

Restless and curious the snakes began to move, and Madara’s mind was instantly drawn from the wolf’s existence. There was an unfamiliar sense of hesitance about the creatures surrounding his head, and he realised the wolf was still alive. Still breathing. The snakes curled around each other in a roiling mess, and then there was the beginnings of hard, rough surface under his fingers instead of fur. He slammed his eyes close. The low hissg and scrapes of scale died in an instant.

There was fur under his fingers again.

He could not understand.

There should be stone. It should stay stone. Meeting the eyes of another being should have been enough. The transformation should continue, not reverse. His mind went blank as the wolf wriggled, growled and tried to escape his grip. It only made him drag it closer, unable to give up the feeling of something alive under his hands.

A cold wet nose nudged his face, and with a huff the wolf settled down half on, half off him. He could feel it restlessly move its nose about, shoving at his cheek and neck before resting its head on his shoulder with a snort that ruffled his hair and sent a shiver down his spine when it blew over his ear.

The restless protests were so familiar.

Tentatively he let his hands wander up over the shoulders, settling into deep fur and hugging it close to his chest. A heartbeat faintly throbbing against his fingers where they nestled down to skin and ribs made him sob, overwhelmed. It seems so unlikely, but-

“Tobi?” The wolf stilled at his broken voice, and made a questioning sound as it relaxed into the embrace.

Maybe. Maybe it is Tobirama. If there are creatures like himself, why not werewolves, or whatever the creature might be? The hope hurt as it wells up, intense and making him drag sobbing breaths, while the wolf nuzzles the side of his face, licking his cheek before it curled up against him properly.

*

When the first warm light of the sunrise crossed his eyelids, there was a ripple under his hands, impossible to put into words in the way the shape changed. He wasn’t sure if he had spent the night dragging fingers through the fur that now disappeared, or if he had fallen asleep. No matter which, he felt exhausted and sluggish. His hands cautiously moved over the familiar shape, soft skin without fur. Alive, not stone. 

His fingers scrambled as 

"Daaamn..." Tobirama groaned as he moved down to lie beside Madara, and stretch his body with a huff that sounded weirdly like a wolf now. "I did not expect that to happen," he complained, as if he had simply miscalculated an experiment. It’s a tone Madara has heard often enough.

"You did not expect that?" He asked, incredulous.

“Of course not, if I had, I wouldn’t have uncovered your eyes,” Tobirama grumbled, nosing his face against the side of Madara’s face, breath gusting over his ear and giving him a surrealistic deja vu from the way a wolf had done the same just hours before.

Then Tobirama added with a displeased muttering, “you could have mentioned something.”

Madara snapped.

“I could have mentioned something!?” he shouted, sitting up abruptly. “ **YOU** turn into a fucking **WOLF** , and I’m the one who could have _mentioned something_? Do you have ANY idea how it feels, knowing you killed the person you love, Tobirama? I was stuck under the petrified form of you, you asshole! I thought you were dead, gone, that I’d never see you again and it was all because of what a fucking monster I am!” His anger and frustration had turned to broken half sobs toward the end, his whole body trembled in shock.

“I’m alright, though,” Tobirama mumbled softly.

“You weren’t.”

“But I am,” he said, more confidence in his voice has he moved a hand to rest lightly against Madara’s chest, “and a full moon shift is apparently strong enough to break through the petrification.”

Wrung out and overcome with the sheer relief to hear Tobirama as frustratingly rational as usual, Madara found no words. He could only take Tobirama’s hand and press it firmer against his own chest, head hanging to cover the tears threatening to start up again.

“I wonder if it’s only at the peak of the full moon, or if it works under any moon,” Tobirama mused, his fingers tapping against Madara’s chest in thought. “Do you think we could try-”

“NO!” Madara bit off, sharp. “No! Never! Don’t you dare make me have to live through that again, you insensitive prick!” 

“Right, right, but I could at least-”

“Shut up now if you ever want to get into my bed again, fuck, you are infuriating,” Madara growled, feeling lightheaded with the relief despite the anger. His lover was most definitely back to himself, no doubt about it. He felt a slight trepidation for just what kind of experimentation Tobirama might be able to talk him into in the future, but it didn’t stop him from bending over the man to kiss him into silence. But. Maybe. Maybe things could turn out fine even if the worst happened again.

Oh.

And he would force Tobirama to tell him just what the wolf thing was, later. After he had assured himself just how alive they both were.

**Author's Note:**

> The next to last of the six fix-its I have planned for my angsty MadaTobi week. Thank you Kalira for proofreading.


End file.
